It began as a whisper over lunch meetings, conferences, and social gatherings. “How many other women coders do you work with?” we would ask. “Well, it’s just me…” we heard time and time again. It wasn’t unanimous, but it sure was prevalent.

We decided that an archipelago of desks across the city wasn’t enough, thus Ladies Who Code was born.

Showcase your fashion or e-commerce goods at PITCH NYC Conference to hundreds of entrepreneurs and technologists!

By Sepideh Nasiri (Vice President of All Things Offline, Women 2.0)

We’re excited to come to New York from San Francisco, bringing our PITCH Conference to the fashion capital of the world. We would like to invite and include emerging and current fashion designers to showcase their products (jewelry, shoes, purses, dresses, clothes, etc) at our Fashion 2.0 Alley on November 14

At Hack’n Jill, our hackathon attendees are concentrating on building amazing products and services.

By Eugenia Koo (Co-Founder, Hack’n Jill)

Recently Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg gave some serious kudos to software engineer Nora Mullaney on Quora for Mullaney’s response to the question, “What advice would seasoned women in tech give to younger girls deciding to make a tech career for themselves?”

I’m afraid that women may fall into the trap of thinking that it is harder than it actually is and thus approach it with an expectation that they can only scratch the surface and cannot go deeper.

By Jane Wang (Hacker, Hacker School)

Why you ask?

David Albert, a co-founder at Hacker School, a program that is targeting towards 50% female enrollment, says software engineering requires less pedigree than other competitive professions, because a degree says less about how good someone is as a programmer than his or her code.

It’s hard to argue with good code. True to the Hacker Ethic, software engineering is a field for real meritocracy.

From angel investors to VCs, Women 2.0 puts a face to those who invest in women. Only 11% of investment partners at venture capital firms are women and 15% of angel investors are women. This is unfortunate and needs to change, as women investors are more likely to be directly connected to and able to attract female-led ventures.

A solution to the low rate of women entrepreneurs receiving investment to go big with their ventures would be to increase the pipeline of women angel investors and venture capitalists. This week, we talk to the owner of Sterling Place, angel investor Elizabeth Crowell.

The numbers are bleak – 11% of investment partners at venture capital firms are women and 15% of angel investors are women. And according to this handy infographic on investing in women, women investors are far more apt to be directly connected to and able to attract female-led ventures. Women invest in women where there are women to be found.

A solution to the low rate of women entrepreneurs receiving investment to go big with their ventures would be to increase the pipeline of women angel investors and venture capitalists.

“Women tend to start so-called lifestyle businesses, meaning companies that stay small enough to allow their owners to have a life outside the business, while investors are looking for startups with the potential for huge scale, so there is often a mismatch.”

By Anne Fisher (Writer, Crain’s New York Business)

“Venture capital has always been a guy’s game,” entrepreneur Amanda Steinberg said recently.

Too true: Although women own about one-third of all U.S. small businesses and start companies at twice the rate of men, a scant 11% of venture capital funding goes to female entrepreneurs, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.

Yet Amanda, CEO of DailyWorth, which she founded in early 2009, has raised more than $3 million in outside capital

VolunteerSpot’s simple sign up application makes it easy to participate and say YES to volunteering.

By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

Austin-based management consultant and working mom Karen Bantuveris became a Girl Scout leader and PTA board member when her daughter entered school. She was shocked at all the “little things” that made volunteering a hassle. Fueled by frustration with reply-all emails, clipboards, online groups and late night reminder messages, Karen set out to do something about it in 2009…

Fast forward a few years – VolunteerSpot announced $1.5M Series A funding from ff Venture Capital in New York with participation from angels in the Central TX Angel Network, Nebraska

The city is bustling with intelligence and fast-paced individuals who are great at thinking outside of the box.

By Kimberly E. Stone (Founder, POSHGLAM)

As an entrepreneur driven by business and innovation, I thoroughly enjoy the process of taking on new projects and nurturing them to completion. An avid fashion magazine junkie, I made my own clothes throughout high school and college and took courses with a local designer which helped me to refine my design aesthetic and served as a great compliment to my coursework in marketing.

While working for a startup at the beginning of my career, I began to realize the propensity for marketing growth on the web and the importance of building trust

“If you can’t hustle your way to meet one of these people, you probably don’t deserve their money.”

By Alyson Shontell (Editor, Business Insider)

If you’re new to the New York startup scene, who are the best early-stage investors to pitch? There are a lot of people and early-stage firms who can cut your startup’s first checks.

In recent years, seed funding has become more formalized. Many of the folks on this list aren’t “angels” in the classic sense of the word — i.e.individuals who became rich and now spray money around. This list includes early-stage VCs and other professional investors who make seed investments.

Women 2.0 talked to TechStars participant Sonia Sahney Nagar, a co-founder and CEO of a personalized shopping magazine for the iPad called Pickie. A former Amazon, Goldman Sachs and Booz & Co employee, Sonia pursued her passion for innovating at the intersection of digital and retail with Pickie in TechStars New York.

Women 2.0: Congrats on demoing your startup Pickie at TechStars demo day last week! How did you hear about TechStars?

Loosecubes, a workspace sharing site based in Brooklyn, raises Series A in venture funding.

By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

A peer-to-peer workspace sharing platform Loosecubes announced closing a $7.8 million round of Series A financing, bringing its total funding to $9 million. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates and Revolution Ventures, with participation from previous investors, Accel Partners and Battery Ventures.

Entrepreneur Campbell McKellarblogged, “When I set out to create Loosecubes, my primary goal was to create a job for myself that I loved doing. And while I didn’t expect it to be an eighty-hour workweek, I have in fact done just that.”

“We want to be proactive, rather than reactive, with the current state of homogeneity in the tech space.”

By Eugenia Koo (Co-Founder, Hack’n Jill)

Gentlemen, the ladies have arrived. And they have come bearing code.

On June 15, 2012, the tech arena will forever be transformed. Hack’n Jill is to feature the first ever hackathon with a half-and-half split of men and women. One hundred developers and designers will mark a shift in the conversation around gender diversity simply by looking beyond their peer’s surface qualities and focusing on their skills.

Teams will be the change they wish to see in the world. The format of the hackathon is simple. Friday night we will kick off

A Startup Battlefield finalist at at TechCrunch Disrupt in NYC blogs about her experience.

By Neha Sampat (Co-Founder, KurbKarma)

Women in tech kicked butt this week at TechCrunch Disrupt in NYC!

After over 11 months of dedicating many nights and weekends to “my little venture”, the opportunity to finally launch KurbKarma as a Startup Battlefield Finalist was incredible – and an unforgettable experience for any founder.

PITCH NYC is an entirely unique event: a conference, networking event and competition solely focused on encouraging more female founders in technology startups. Every year we get questions about who should apply to the PITCH NYC competition and why, as well as questions on eligibility, so I thought I’d roll them up for you here.

You should apply to PITCH NYC for three reasons:

To codify your process: The application is a resource to help you get clear and concise about the value of your company and put together your pitch.

SCAMP is specially curated for people who are looking for inspiration outside their bubble.

By Alessandra Lariu (Co-Founder, SheSays)

Isn’t it great to witness germs of ideas before they become big? To see the next iPad, the next Pinterest, the next Google venture?

SCAMP 2012 is a conference about ideas still in progress, prototypes, experiments and innovation. Curated by SheSays, this half-day event will enlighten you with a bunch of themes and products that will be famous one day. From edible cups to smart hacking you’ll see it at SCAMP first.

The event will happen in New York in June 15 at the Art Director’s Club. The format has each hour is dedicated to an innovation category: entrepreneurship, product, community and creative.